String-type weed and grass trimmers, which have rotating, filamentous cutting blades, are commonly used to edge lawns and cut vegetation in hard-to-reach places that conventional lawnmowers cannot reach. While string trimmers are useful for applications such as cutting grass close to tree trunks and flower beds, they have numerous disadvantages relating to the configuration of the cutting blade and a typical guard housing. Typically, the cutting blade of the string trimmer rotates below a motor about an axis in a planar cutting circle. A curved guard housing is typically provided behind the cutting circle and extends approximately one-rough to one-half the circumference around the rearward periphery of the cutting circle. The cutting string or blade is thus exposed in the forward regions of the cutting circle, which can be dangerous and can cause inadvertent damage to vegetation such as trees and flowers next to the weeds or grass being cut. Another disadvantage of having the forward periphery of the cutting circle exposed is that damage readily occurs to the cutting filament or blade when the cutting blade inadvertently contacts a hard object such as a tree or sidewalk. This leads to the necessity of having to more frequently pay out additional cutting filament, in the case of string-type blades, or more frequently sharpen or replace chain-type metal cutting blades.
In the past, attempts have been made to provide guards for string type trimmers. Several prior art string trimmer guards have provided protection around only a portion of the cutting circle. Other prior art string trimmer guards have provided circular guard discs that lie above the cutting blade's circle, not coplanar with the blade. Until now, there has been no string trimmer guard that provides 360.degree. degree circumferential protection around the entire periphery of the cutting circle, coplanar with the cutting blade.
Typically, electric lawn trimmers receive power through a conventional extension cord, the female end of which plugs into a socket on the end of the trimmer's handle. However, extension cords tend to be pulled out of the socket, inconveniencing and interrupting the user. Therefore, there is a need for a device that securely holds the extension cord in the plug socket of an electric lawn trimmer.